Ascension Sacred Heart Pensacola was identified as one of the nation’s 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals® according to an independent quality analysis based on a balanced scorecard provided by Premier, Inc. and published by Modern Healthcare.
Sacred Heart is ranked 5th in the nation, and best in Florida, on the list of top teaching hospitals without a cardiovascular residency program.The cardiovascular program graded out 98.9 percentile in overall rankings for both Clinical Performance and Operational Performance. 348 hospitals were evaluated in this category, ranked on 21 different metrics.
It is the ninth time Sacred Heart’s cardiovascular program has been included in these prestigious rankings.
“Being named one of the nation’s 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals is a profound honor that validates our commitment to clinical excellence and compassionate care,” said Will Condon, Ascension Sacred Heart Pensacola President and CEO. “This recognition, especially being ranked fifth in the nation in our category, is a testament to the skill and unwavering dedication of our physicians, nurses, and the entire cardiovascular team who serve our community every day.”
To create the list, an objective, quantitative analysis of publicly available data was conducted to identify the top cardiovascular hospitals in the United States. The primary purpose of the 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals program is to provide data-driven benchmarks that hospital leaders can use to better understand performance variation and improve care for heart patients nationwide. Hospitals do not apply to participate in the study, and recognized organizations do not pay to market this distinction.
Performance of Hospitals Recognized on the 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals List
Compared to peer hospitals, those in the 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals delivered better results across all 21 measures, including clinical outcomes, operational efficiency, extended outcomes and patient experience.
These outcomes add up to meaningful differences. According to the study’s analysis, if all U.S. hospitals’ cardiovascular service lines performed at the level of this year’s 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals, the impact could include over 14,000 additional lives potentially saved, more than 27,000 additional bypass and angioplasty patients experiencing fewer complications, and over $2.0 billion in potential savings.
“Cardiovascular care is one of the most complex and impactful service lines in healthcare,” said David Zito, President of Performance Services at Premier. “The 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals program highlights organizations delivering strong outcomes while providing hospital leaders with meaningful benchmarks to help improve care.”
About the Study
The 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals study is based on quantitative research that uses a balanced scorecard approach, based on publicly available data, to identify the top cardiovascular hospitals in the U.S. The program focuses on short-term, acute care, nonfederal U.S. hospitals that treat a broad spectrum of cardiology patients. It includes patients requiring medical management, as well as those who receive invasive or surgical procedures. Because multiple measures are used, a hospital must provide all forms of cardiovascular care, including open heart surgery, to be included in the study. Each patient group is mutually exclusive by design.
All research was based on the following public data sets: Medicare cost reports, Medicare Provider Analysis and Review (MEDPAR) data, and Care Compare data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Care Compare website.
Final rank is determined based on performance for all individual measures. Hospitals are ranked within peer groups based on bed size and teaching status: teaching hospitals with cardiovascular residency programs (302), teaching hospitals without cardiovascular residency programs (348) and community hospitals (206).
About Ascension Sacred Heart
Ascension Sacred Heart, based in Pensacola, Florida, operates five hospitals and more than 100 other sites of care and employs more than 6,440 associates. In fiscal year 2024, Ascension Sacred Heart provided more than $193 million in community benefit and other care for vulnerable persons. Ascension is a faith-based healthcare organization dedicated to transformation through innovation across the continuum of care. As one of the leading non-profit and Catholic health systems in the U.S., Ascension is committed to delivering compassionate, personalized care to all, with special attention to persons living in poverty and those most vulnerable.
